The army’s flagship, ‘GDFS Essequibo’, which was pulled from Exercise Tradewinds in Barbados after a quantity of marijuana was found on board, is expected to arrive in Guyana today.
Also on board is the rank from the Coast Guard who stashed the prohibited substance on board sometime last weekend just before the vessel set sail. It is unclear whether he will face a court martial before he is handed over to the police for a civil prosecution.
The Ordinary Rating (OR) reportedly placed some 75 pounds of marijuana on the vessel after it had been sanitized, then flew to Barbados and checked into a hotel to await the arrival of the vessel. Sources said he was acting in concert with another Guyanese man.
Early Wednesday morning, this newspaper understands, the rank dressed in his uniform went down to the port in Barbados, where he breached the security and swam out to the Essequibo.
However, he was intercepted by the ship’s security and questioned.
Army sources said yesterday that the rank had given the security the slip while the vessel was docked in Guyana, since the guard usually watched the starboard side. The OR, sources said, might have boarded from the port side in a fishing vessel.
Stabroek News understands that the Barbados authorities have been notified about the find.
The ship set sail for Barbados on Sunday afternoon with seven officers and 33 Ratings under the command of Lieutenant Commander Floyd Levi as part of the Coast Guard phase of the exercise and arrived early Tuesday morning. It was the second time the ‘GDFS Essequibo’ was participating in the annual Tradewinds exercise.